Sixth Doctor Colin Baker has launched an attack on the show suggesting recent incarnations of the Time Lord have been too young, and saying that producers have deemed many of the previous actors “surplus baggage” when casting the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor.

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“I think [Peter] Capaldi is a great idea,” said Baker, 70, who played the Doctor for three years between March 1984 and December 1986.

“He’s an actor I’ve admired for years and he’s a grown up! Not like these 12-year-olds we’ve had lately. He’s a guy who’s done something and been somewhere,” the actor told Orlando Attractions Magazine in Florida.

Speaking of his – and other former Doctor Who stars’ – involvement in the 50th anniversary special, he added: “If I told you my lips were sealed, you’d know I was in it… But my lips are not sealed and I’m not in it.

“I can say that Peter [Davison] isn’t because I’ve seen him recently. And I can tell you that Sylvester [McCoy] isn’t, and neither is Paul [McGann].

“None of us have been deemed worthy of inclusion in a programme that celebrates 50 years of a British television programme, of which I was in it for three.

“No – we are surplus baggage.”

The Day of the Doctor anniversary special, starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and John Hurt will feature appearances from former Doctor David Tennant and his companion Billie Piper. It will be screened on BBC1 on Saturday 23 November at 7:50pm and simulcast around the world.